I have shared many of the different adventures that I have in my hunt for an apartment. This morning I went to look at two more apartment companies, these were recommended by the apartment locator. I will tell you about each place today and tomorrow I will let you know what I have decided about the apartment. Hint: I think I found an apartment.
Apartment 1:
-a 1st floor apartment
-2 bed 2 bath
-washer dryer connections
-a babbling brook with ducks, that the apartment looks over
-the kitchen is on the small side, there are no lower cabinets. Lots of upper cabinets. There is a full size pantry
-lots of windows
-walk in closets
-about 1100 square feet
-the kitchen opens up to the living room
-the patio opens up to a large grassy area for the dog with a walking trail
-reserved covered parking
-good flow through the apartment
-small desk in the apartment
-under budget
Apartment 2:
-2nd floor apartment
-2 bed 2 bath
-washer dryer connections
-a babbling brook with ducks
-long narrow porch that over looks a building and a pool
-the kitchen is on the medium to large side, lots of cabinets. There is a full size pantry
-lots of windows
-walk in closets
-about 1300 square feet
-wood burning fire place
-a separate laundry room
-amazing master closet
-faux stone entry way
-at the very top of my budget
You may notice lots of similarities between the two apartments, they overlook the same brook one on either side of the brook. I totally forgot to take pics, clearly I am still new to this blogging part of my life but I am still working on it. I am sure there are more things that I love about both places, this is going to be a hard decision but I am looking forward to finally settling into a home.
Come back tomorrow for the big reveal of the apartment... I know I am in so much suspense!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Pinterest Success
Sometimes on pinterest you see cute things and wonder is that really going to work out? The majority of the time the answer is no but sometimes you get lucky and find a small diamond in the rough. Over the last few days I have seen the pin of the heart shaped paperclips (I would have put the original site but I can't seem to find it, found it here). A few days ago I realized I needed to paper clip something and wondered if I could make a super cute heart shaped paperclip.
To be honest this was slightly more difficult than I had anticipated, I was a little unsure of how to go about making the heart shape. What they fail to mention in the post is where to bend the paperclip. I found that you bend the clip at the middle of the inner portion of the clip.
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| Cute little heart on the top of my paper! |
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| Horribly ugly back of the paper... |
I thought I posted this yesterday... sorry. Looks like today will be a daily double.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
No book?!?
Depending on how well you know me you know that I love to read. I enjoy just about any book and most of the time there is at least one book in my purse. When I travel it is hard to know how many books to bring, too few and I headed to the bookstore for more and too many means I carted them around for nothing.
After work today I met my grandfather for dinner. It is hard to predict traffic so I beat him to the restaurant by about 20 minutes. This was not a problem until I realized that I did not have a book in my purse. Nor did I have any science papers to read in my work bag. For a few moments I was totally lost and I was terrified that I was going to have to sit there with nothing to do. Luckily my friend called and we chatted for a few and I looked over some emails.
It is moments like these that remind me why I carry a book. You never know when you might have a few moments to yourself and I enjoy reading in those moments. I am currently working my way through a pile of books my aunt gave me. I just started a new Nora Roberts collection tonight. I hope it is good, sometimes her stuff is interesting.
Well I will remember to put a book in my bag tomorrow before I leave for work. Who knows another incident like this and a kindle or iPad could be an upcoming purchase. I'll let you know how the book turns out.
After work today I met my grandfather for dinner. It is hard to predict traffic so I beat him to the restaurant by about 20 minutes. This was not a problem until I realized that I did not have a book in my purse. Nor did I have any science papers to read in my work bag. For a few moments I was totally lost and I was terrified that I was going to have to sit there with nothing to do. Luckily my friend called and we chatted for a few and I looked over some emails.
It is moments like these that remind me why I carry a book. You never know when you might have a few moments to yourself and I enjoy reading in those moments. I am currently working my way through a pile of books my aunt gave me. I just started a new Nora Roberts collection tonight. I hope it is good, sometimes her stuff is interesting.
Well I will remember to put a book in my bag tomorrow before I leave for work. Who knows another incident like this and a kindle or iPad could be an upcoming purchase. I'll let you know how the book turns out.
Is it unrealistic to want the best?
As I am looking for my apartment it seems that I keep finding something wrong with every place. It can be a big something as in a bad neighborhood. Or a small something like the closets. I wonder if some of this is that I don't want to have to move again soon I want to be able to put down some roots and love my place.
I find that I have much anxiety about this apartment. The locator is helping figure all of this out but mainly I jut want all of this to be over. I looked at another place today. It was really great and the main thing I didnt like was that there wasn't a neighborhood near the complex. It was tucked behind a shopping complex and some warehouses. It has definately made the list of possibilities but we shall see if it is the best. There are three more on this current list and I am hoping that one of them is the right one. I am praying that the lord brings me to the right apartment and that I just love it. I am also praying that he will meet al of my needs with this place. Trust is hard but I am working on it.
Looking forward to having a place to call my own.
I find that I have much anxiety about this apartment. The locator is helping figure all of this out but mainly I jut want all of this to be over. I looked at another place today. It was really great and the main thing I didnt like was that there wasn't a neighborhood near the complex. It was tucked behind a shopping complex and some warehouses. It has definately made the list of possibilities but we shall see if it is the best. There are three more on this current list and I am hoping that one of them is the right one. I am praying that the lord brings me to the right apartment and that I just love it. I am also praying that he will meet al of my needs with this place. Trust is hard but I am working on it.
Looking forward to having a place to call my own.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Apartment Update
Last week I went to see two different apartment complexes, I am not going to say that it was a disaster but it wasn't good. I realized that I didn't really like either of them I was just looking at them because they were cheap. After that I went back to the ones that I thought I liked online and realized I was so tired of looking for myself that I was lost. In a rare moment of genius I went ahead and called a locator service, this was a great choice.
My locator in less than 5 hours sent me a list of apartments that looked promising, were in my price range, and had the things that I liked. She seemed to be able to determine what it is that I want before I really know what it is that I have to have. She is willing to make lots of phone calls and find out what is available before I get out to the place. I have been sorting through the list and weeding some of them out and then I will be able to tell her what I like and what I don't and maybe even get a few more options. I have high hopes that I will be able to find a place soon. I don't know if I will make my Aggie Kickoff goal but it will be close. I am ready to start having my friends come for a visit and start nesting.
I will keep you updated on this part of the search, I wish I had done this earlier but in some silly way this felt a whole lot like failure. I felt as if I was unable to find a place on my own and that it was a huge failure. I still feel that way a bit but it is reducing my stress and that is very important. Hopefully this will be a good process and I will keep you updated on my search as it progresses.
Science is a cruel mistress
When I realized I wanted to be a scientist many years ago, I didn't really know what I was getting into. In school we learn about all of the amazing things that scientists have brought to us: DNA, antibiotics, light, electricity, and a million other everyday items. In very rare cases are the many scientific failures mentioned, the only case I can think of is when penicillin was discovered. If you remember the story, the scientist was trying for months to find an antibiotic and accidentally left his moldy orange near his experiments and realized that he had discovered something.
These cute stories are meant to make science interesting to young students and to make them seem neat. However, this is a lie. Science is hard and you spend more time failing and not getting anything to work than you do getting great results. No one eats their lunch in the lab and fortuitously gets better results because their food got into their experiment. If you eat in the lab here is what happens: safety gets ticked off, you could get ants, you could kill yourself from chemical exposure, or you could contaminate your experiment. So that is not how to set up an experiment.
I find myself realizing that grad school was not about learning anything particularly applicable to life it is about learning to fail with grace. I learned to take my failed experiments and evaluate them for flaws and then try again, here is the hardest part you then repeat that step about a million times until it works. There tends to come a point when you throw in the towel and say I am going to live to fight this fight again tomorrow... what happens right after you say that. You would be correct if you guessed a HUGE breakthrough. Now after this you have two choices bail or stay. Sometimes you bail because you just can't stand the sight of your science other times you know that if you leave whatever is working will not work tomorrow.
I have learned all of these lessons first hand already but it seems that I am doomed to relearn these lessons over and over throughout my post-doc. It is one thing to know that you could fail at something it is something else entirely to know that the odds are not in your favor and they are so far out of your favor that if it works on the first few tries most people (myself included) will not believe these results.
There is no toll you can pay in science to make things work better no method to guarantee your success in your experiments so much of what we do is a black box. I often refer to this a science voodoo, where yours will be different from everyone else and there will be no rhythm for what works.
I am tired of failing at science I just want something to work and for myself to believe it. If we are putting our hopes out there I would like for these experiments to give results that make a little sense. Sometimes I hate science, why didn't I just get an MRS degree?!?!? Probably because it would have made me crazy.
These cute stories are meant to make science interesting to young students and to make them seem neat. However, this is a lie. Science is hard and you spend more time failing and not getting anything to work than you do getting great results. No one eats their lunch in the lab and fortuitously gets better results because their food got into their experiment. If you eat in the lab here is what happens: safety gets ticked off, you could get ants, you could kill yourself from chemical exposure, or you could contaminate your experiment. So that is not how to set up an experiment.
I find myself realizing that grad school was not about learning anything particularly applicable to life it is about learning to fail with grace. I learned to take my failed experiments and evaluate them for flaws and then try again, here is the hardest part you then repeat that step about a million times until it works. There tends to come a point when you throw in the towel and say I am going to live to fight this fight again tomorrow... what happens right after you say that. You would be correct if you guessed a HUGE breakthrough. Now after this you have two choices bail or stay. Sometimes you bail because you just can't stand the sight of your science other times you know that if you leave whatever is working will not work tomorrow.
I have learned all of these lessons first hand already but it seems that I am doomed to relearn these lessons over and over throughout my post-doc. It is one thing to know that you could fail at something it is something else entirely to know that the odds are not in your favor and they are so far out of your favor that if it works on the first few tries most people (myself included) will not believe these results.
There is no toll you can pay in science to make things work better no method to guarantee your success in your experiments so much of what we do is a black box. I often refer to this a science voodoo, where yours will be different from everyone else and there will be no rhythm for what works.
I am tired of failing at science I just want something to work and for myself to believe it. If we are putting our hopes out there I would like for these experiments to give results that make a little sense. Sometimes I hate science, why didn't I just get an MRS degree?!?!? Probably because it would have made me crazy.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Blueberry Muffins
Yesterday I shared with you how I was tired of cereal for breakfast and I made some muffins. I am going to share the recipe with you today but I thought I would give a little insight into the insanity of making these muffins. I found this recipe on pinterest and sometimes I don't have luck with that but I figured that it would be a good risk to try this recipe, the original recipe can be found here.
I knew I didn't have enough time in the morning to make all of the muffins so I mixed the batter together without the blueberries the night before and put it in the fridge. The batter was a little on the brown side but I will address that a little later, I will give you a hint I added way too much cinnamon.
Blueberry Muffins
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2-1/3 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 cups blueberries
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In a 1 cup measuring cup, add the oil, then the egg, and add enough milk to total 1 cup.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together. At this point my batter was very very brown, not the typical white that you have for muffins.
At this point I tossed the batter into the fridge until morning.
Add the blueberries
Plop into lined muffin tins, I got 12 muffins out of this.
Bake at 400 for 20-25 (if the batter is cold it will take the whole 25 minutes).
You may not be able to tell from the photos but I had a blonde moment when I made these. I have mentioned that the batter was a little on the dark side, it is probably because I added 2 tsp of cinnamon instead of the 1 tsp that was recommended. This has made my muffins just a tad on the bitter side but with a little butter they are much more edible.
I have been enjoying these muffins over the last two days and I will have them again tomorrow but I think next time I have a craving for not cereal I will make sure that I have read the recipe at least twice before I start stirring up the batter. I will be sure to share the next baking adventure with you so that you can enjoy it as much as I have.
I knew I didn't have enough time in the morning to make all of the muffins so I mixed the batter together without the blueberries the night before and put it in the fridge. The batter was a little on the brown side but I will address that a little later, I will give you a hint I added way too much cinnamon.
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| The inside of these muffins |
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2-1/3 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 cups blueberries
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In a 1 cup measuring cup, add the oil, then the egg, and add enough milk to total 1 cup.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together. At this point my batter was very very brown, not the typical white that you have for muffins.
At this point I tossed the batter into the fridge until morning.
Add the blueberries
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| All mixed up... looking yummy already |
Bake at 400 for 20-25 (if the batter is cold it will take the whole 25 minutes).
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| In the oven |
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| Just out of the oven |
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| Ready for me to eat |
I have been enjoying these muffins over the last two days and I will have them again tomorrow but I think next time I have a craving for not cereal I will make sure that I have read the recipe at least twice before I start stirring up the batter. I will be sure to share the next baking adventure with you so that you can enjoy it as much as I have.
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